Become a Fan

Support the Revolution!

Connect with WDR

WDR Shirts

Who Dey Revolution Manifesto

Preamble

IN THIS TIME of perpetual Cincinnati Bengals incompetence and futility, with zero playoff wins in the nineteen seasons since the WhoDeyRevolution Godfather, Paul Brown, passed away in 1991 and handed the team to his fortunate son, the Despot, Mike Brown;

Introduction

WE, the members of the Who Dey Revolution, in our fervent dedication to the Cincinnati Bengals and fanatical desire to transform our hometown team into perpetual Super Bowl contenders, call for a popular revolution of fans to demand comprehensive reform to the managerial decisions and approach of Cincinnati Bengals ownership, management, staff and players, and hereby call for the adoption of the following Who Dey Revolution Manifesto:

Manifesto Demands

THAT the Mike Brown, Katie Blackburn, Marvin Lewis, along with every other member of the Bengals management, staff and personnel, state publicly to all Bengals fans, “I will do everything in my power to help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl;”

THAT Mike Brown will hire a general manager, drastically expand the scouting department and relinquish all control of player personnel;

THAT all training, rehabilitation and medical facilities are considered best-in-class compared to other NFL teams;

THAT the management fill the team only with players who fit the system, both mentally and physically, and are not reluctant to makes changes to player personnel when needed, regardless of cost or loyalty concerns;

THAT offensive and defensive line depth is considered the top priority for all player personnel decisions;

THAT all decisions made by ownership, management, staff and players, both on and off the field, are judged only by this criterion: “Does this help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl?”

March 2012

March 23, 2012

Per a tweet from Bengals.com editor Geoff Hobson, the Bengals have announced the hiring of two-full time scouts today: Robert Livingston (former asst. coach at Vanderbilt) and Steven Radicevic (former Director of Football Operations at UCLA).

Much more to come as we figure out exactly who these guys are...but quite frankly I never thought I would see the day when hiring, scouts and Bengals would collide in the same sentence.

March 07, 2012

Without questions there have been some encouraging trends coming out of the Bengals front office. However, just because there are encouraging signs doesn't mean all is well. The need for vigilance remains. In that spirit, towards the end of the State of the Union post I wrote about some things to look for as "confirming evidence" that Bengals are finally deciding to join the modern NFL. Among the things I listed, I omitted a major item: signing their own worthy players who are about to be free agents (hat tip to folks in the comments like "West TX Bengals Fan").

I suppose the operative word here is worthy. Worthiness will rest in the eye of the beholder, of course. I have my own opinions but my opinion could be shitty. I think we can all agree though, that guys in the past like JJoe are WORTHY, and it SUCKS to see them just walk away for no good reason. For now, rather than pass judgment on our roster, I'll simply link to the Joe Reedy post where he concisely lays out all the various current Bengals free agents about to hit the market place to test the value of their human capital in the NFL. I would hope to see those elusive worthy players on this list as Bengals in 2012. And if many of these players end up elsewhere, well then, I hope to see some damn good replacements from this list.

And remember folks, a player who has already played for your team is MORE valuable to you than a player of roughly equal talent at the same position from another team. Logic such as this, for example, would explain why overpaying for Reggie Nelson when you are WAY under the likely floor (let alone cap) for the 2013 season isn't the worst thing in the world.

March 02, 2012

Okay folks, we're dusting the screen off and firing up the blog again (at least, we're gonna try). There have been some very important recent developments that need to be addressed. All of them positive, all of them welcome, and all of them wonderfully surprising given the Bengals track record.

Steven will have the designation "west coast regional scout" or some such title, which, is the type of title you see in teams with front offices that have excellent long term track records of success (Raven, Steelers). Hooray.

Steven has no apparent family or friend relationship to the Brown's that would indicate this is a nepotistic hire in nature.

Steven, in fact, seems to have both a solid resume in his professional career (though the exact nature of his past job at UCLA isn't entirely clear to me) and also experience as a player in college.

This is without question a positive development. While the Bengals have made decent decisions with their old way of doing things the past few years, they have never actually addressed anything core to our Manifesto of demands. This finally does. And let's not underestimate that. Now, I do want to add that with Jim Lippincott leaving, this again isn't necessarily a beefing up of the department, but merely a replacement. It is similar to the signing of Coles & Bryant in that it felt like an unusual move but was in fact merely replacing a lost employee (in this case TJ). However, Jim Lippincott was head/director of personnel, not a scout, so thinking of Steven as replacing him may not be the proper way to think about it. Hopefully there is more to come.